Darius Bazley leaves game vs. Celtics with sprained knee, will not return

He appeared to sprain his right knee after making a layup in the final minute of the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Celtics.

The Thunder were just back to playing at full strength.

Darius Bazley suffered a knee injury in the first quarter of Oklahoma City’s game against the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon.

The injury happened in the final minute of the first quarter when Bazley made a driving layup to tie the game at 28.

Oklahoma City’s Twitter accounted tweeted out the play before announcing the injury.

Off the pass from Terrance Ferguson, Bazley took it to the hoop, sidestepping both Enes Kanter and Grant Williams. He looks to pull up awkwardly, raising his right knee and going to the off-hand to finish the shot.

Bazley can be seen visibly limping as the teams run back down the court. He left for the locker room for further evaluation.

The Thunder announced after halftime that it was a right knee sprain and that Bazley would be out for the rest of the game.

The basket was Bazley’s only make from the floor. He played just three minutes going 1-of-2 from the floor and 1-2 from the free-throw line.

The rookie has played in all 52 games for the Thunder this season, starting eight. He’s averaging 4.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game.

Team health was an issue for OKC during the month of January when multiple guys missed time due to various injuries. Both Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel struggled with ankle injuries while Terrance Ferguson missed eight straight games before returning on Feb. 3.

Billy Donovan had said earlier this week that a healthy bench complicated roster rotations.

Hamidou Diallo, who had not played in either of OKC’s wins last week after Ferguson returned to practice, got into the game Sunday. He’s played five minutes without recording any stats as of this writing.